Police enjoyed free tickets for eight years to watch a top Premier League side at the centre of an anti-corruption inquiry.

Dozens of officers and staff took advantage of six Arsenal season tickets provided by the wealthy North London club.

The deal will deepen concerns about the cosy relationship between it and the Metropolitan Police.

Earlier this month the Daily Mail revealed star player Mesut Ozil faces questions over how three Scotland Yard detectives ended up in his private box at a match.

The freebie: Detective Sergeant Simon Jones (left) and Mesut Ozil (second left) in the player’s box at the Emirates with a youth, an unidentified fan and Detective Constable Helen Nicolson (far right), who was not involved in the investigation

Just 24 hours earlier some of them were tasked with speaking to him after his car collided with a photographer outside his home.

Senior politicians tasked with overseeing the Met said the season ticket deal raises worrying questions about the impartiality of police.

Baroness Jenny Jones said: ‘Accepting hospitality like this gives the impression that not everyone is equal before the law and that favours can be bought.’

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The ticket deal began in 2005 when Arsenal agreed to hand over six season tickets every year to police in the London borough of Islington.

The sought-after seats were handed out on a ‘match-by-match’ basis to officers and staff as a reward for good work, the Met said.

It is not known how much the tickets were worth, but the cheapest Arsenal season ticket for the 2014/15 season is £985 and the most expensive almost £2,000.

Helen Nicolson was photographed grinning as she shook hands with Ozil

Probe: Football superstar Ozil on the night of the incident. Freelance photographer Lee Essex dialled 999 claiming Ozil had driven his Porsche into him, knocking his arm with a wing mirror

But the hospitality, worth tens of thousands of pounds, was abruptly stopped when a new area chief took charge last year.

The season ticket deal was revealed as questions over the conduct of Arsenal and World Cup final star Ozil remain unanswered.

The German faces being quizzed on his return to London over the presence of three detectives in his private box at a match in February.

Just 24 hours earlier a police inquiry was launched when a photographer claimed he was assaulted by the star after being hit by his car.

Mesut Ozil (centre) scores for Arsenal in the Premier League against Newcastle United last season

Two of the detectives at the match are believed to have been asked to assist that investigation which was dropped within weeks.

Bureaucrats in a traffic office wrote to the photographer to tell him the inquiry was over and blamed the lack of ‘independent evidence’.

All three detectives, who were initially suspended from frontline duties, face being questioned under caution later this month for potential misconduct.

Colleagues insist the trio are guilty of nothing more than ‘stupidity’ but chiefs are concerned their actions may have brought the force into disrepute.

Accepting hospitality like this gives the impression that not everyone is equal before the law and that favours can be bought

The tickets were not the only gestures of goodwill from Arsenal to the police force.

It donated a £640 camera to its football liaison team and gave police use of two vehicles, a Citroen Dispatch van and a Saab car.

The force also paid hundreds of thousands of pounds towards the cost of policing matches at its Emirates ground.

Caroline Pidgeon, a London Lib Dem politician, said: ‘Before accepting any hospitality every police officer should ask fundamental questions as to whether acceptance is good for policing and how it would be perceived by the public.

‘It seems staggering that for so long a number of police officers in Islington completely failed to ask such basic questions and ignored the Met’s own gifts and hospitality rules.’